An Indian Party in Ireland

Leo Varadkar, the charismatic young politician of Indian descent, is set to make history as Ireland's next PM.

- Margaret Ward

Two of my brothers were decorated as freedom fighters, and my sisters took part in the liberation of Goa,” says Dr Ashok Varadkar. “Politics is not that new in our house.” We’re standing in a huddle of people around Leo Varadkar after one of the leadership hustings in a provincial institute of technology, and his father Ashok is grinning with pride. He moved to Ireland after meeting his Irish wife Miriam when they were both working in the UK. Now, his son is just days away from becoming Taoiseach (prime minister) of Ashok’s adopted homeland.

Varadkar is expected to take up office on June 13, but he has been eyeing this position for a long time. “When he was 10 years old, he used to sit in front of the television during elections,” says Varadkar senior. “He would know who won and what votes they got. Not just in Ireland but all over the world!”

The country Varadkar will soon be running has bounced back from the financial crash of 2008, but now faces a new and serious challenge from the withdrawal of its nearest neighbour from the European Union. Brexit poses particular problems for Ireland—both practical and political—as it shares a land border with Northern Ireland, which is part of the UK. It has also emerged that one of those involved in last week’s attack in London lived in Dublin for a time and married there, a wake-up call for the country which had felt removed from this kind of terrorism. Ireland’s openness to migration during the Celtic Tiger era in the 1990s and early 2000s has created a more multi-cultural society, with all the benefits and challenges that this presents.